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This vibrant veggie and avocado pizza is the ultimate vegetarian pizza recipe, starring bell peppers, fresh basil, and creamy goat cheese!
After 4 trips to Italy and over 10 years of research, Alex and I can finally say we’re homemade pizza experts. We’ve created our own master recipes for perfectly chewy and crispy crust and tangy tomato sauce. We know how to get those beautiful char marks (our fancy oven). While the classic Margherita pizza is our specialty, there’s a new favorite in town: this California veggie and avocado pizza! It’s full of colorful veggie toppings: peppers, tomatoes, red onion, and dollops of soft goat cheese. Top it all off with that vegetable (or fruit!) darling: the avocado.
Related: Homemade Pizza for Beginners | Best Goat Cheese Recipes
The secrets to topping this veggie & avocado pizza
This veggie and avocado pizza is a take on the “So Cal” pizza served here in Indianapolis at Jockomo’s. When a dear friend asked us if we could create a pizza inspired by the So Cal, we jumped at the chance. It turned out incredibly colorful and totally delicious, due to the genius combination of flavors and textures. Here are the toppings on this veggie and avocado pizza:
- Easy homemade pizza sauce: our “famous” pizza sauce makes a savory base
- Mozzarella & goat cheese: Creamy, tangy goat cheese dollops contrast gooey mozzarella
- Bell peppers & red onion add beautiful colors and a crunchy texture
- Fresh basil adds a peppery herbaceous note
- Avocado seals the deal (or even grilled avocado)
In all our years of making artisan pizza, this veggie & avocado pizza one is our favorite toppings. It’s a tasty way to eat an avocado…as if you needed another one! Speaking of, we’ve started an informal tradition of pizza night on Thursdays instead of Fridays! It’s been a nice way to celebrate almost making it to the end of the week. How about you – do you have any pizza traditions?
Related: Homemade Pizza Recipes | What’s the Best Pizza Stone? | Pizza Topping Ideas
How to make pizza dough
For the dough for this veggie and avocado pizza, we’ve got several recipes that you can make depending on your tastes and equipment! Here are our best methods:
- Pizza Dough Master Recipe is our best method that results in a classic, crispy yet chewy pizza crust! You can use a stand mixer, but you can also knead it by hand.
- Easy Thin Crust makes a similar dough, but you roll it out into thinner crust.
- Quick Pizza Dough in a Food Processor: This one is quicker than the first two, and uses a food processor to knead the dough.
Making pizza dough is all about watching a master show you how it’s done! Below is a video of Alex showing how to make and stretch the pizza dough!
Looking for artisan pizza recipes?
This veggie and avocado pizza is one of our favorite artisan pizzas to make at home. Here are a few of our other best homemade pizza recipes:
- Perfect Neapolitan Pizza
- Spicy Vegetarian Diavola Pizza
- Mushroom Pizza with Fresh Herbs
- Best Ever Taco Pizza
- Breakfast Pizza
- Veggie Supreme Pizza
- Homemade Cheese Pizza
- Mediterranean Pizza
- Artichoke & Cherry Tomato Pizza
- Loaded Mexican Pizza
- Our Best Vegan Pizza
- Egg Pizza with Scallions
- Italian Pizza with Pesto
- Best Anchovy Pizza
- Easy Calzone Recipe
- Homemade Easy Pizza Sauce
- KitchenAid Pizza Dough Recipe
- How to Clean a Pizza Stone
- Homemade Margherita Pizza Recipe
Related: Want a quick pizza dough without yeast? Rye Pizza Dough Cracker Crust
This veggie and avocado pizza recipe is…
Vegetarian.
Print
California Veggie & Avocado Pizza
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 8 slices 1x
Description
This vibrant veggie and avocado pizza is the ultimate vegetarian pizza recipe, starring bell peppers, fresh basil, and creamy goat cheese!
Ingredients
- 1 ball Best Pizza Dough (or Food Processor Dough or Thin Crust Dough)
- 1/4 red bell pepper
- 1/4 yellow bell pepper
- 1/4 small red onion
- 8 to 10 leaves fresh basil
- ⅓ cup Homemade Easy Pizza Sauce
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 4 ounces soft goat cheese
- 1/2 avocado
- Kosher salt
- Semolina flour or cornmeal, for dusting the pizza peel
Instructions
- Make the pizza dough: Follow the Best Pizza Dough recipe to prepare the dough. (This takes about 15 minutes to make and 45 minutes to rest.)
- Place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 500°F. OR preheat your pizza oven (here’s the pizza oven we use).
- Make the pizza sauce: Make the Homemade Pizza Sauce.
- Prepare the toppings: Thinly slice the peppers. Thinly slice the onion. Thinly slice (chiffonade) the basil leaves. Remove the avocado pit.
- Place the dough on the pizza peel: When the oven is ready, dust a pizza peel with cornmeal or semolina flour. (If you don’t have a pizza peel, you can use a rimless baking sheet or the back of a rimmed baking sheet. But a pizza peel is well worth the investment!) Stretch the dough into a circle; see How to Stretch Pizza Dough for instructions. Then gently place the dough onto the pizza peel.
- Quickly assemble the pizza: Spread a thin layer of the pizza sauce onto the dough. Top with the mozzarella cheese. Then add sliced peppers, onions, and dollops of goat cheese. Using a spoon, scoop out small dollops of the flesh onto the pizza. Sprinkle the top with kosher salt.
- Bake the pizza: Transfer the pizza to the pizza stone in the oven using the pizza peel, and bake until the cheese is melted, about 7 minutes (or 1 minute in a pizza oven). Allow to cool slightly, then garnish with basil and serve.
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Pizza, Vegetarian Pizza, Veggie Pizza, Italian Pizza, Pizza Oven, Vegetarian, Entertaining, Artisan Pizza
Last updated: November 2019
I just love the avocado on top of this! Such a yummy addition!
This pizza sounds interesting and definitely worth a try! I am a So Cal native and I love pizza. My husband’s family has a Christmas Eve tradition of making pizza at home- enough pizza to cover every counter and table in the house!
Yum, looks so good!!
Pizza night is one of our go-to recipes on any night of the week, so I’m always looking for fresh ways to mix it up. This recipe looks so fabulous for spring!
Being from so-cal I crave the flavors in this pizza. Avocado on evvvverything! So beautiful. As for pizza traditions – pizza was one of the first dinners Scott and I ever made together while dating, and still have occasional pizza nights where we build them and recount those happy memories :) food is so much more fun when you get to make it together!
These pics look amazing and this recipe is just in time for spring! About to breakout our pizza oven, so we may have to try this combo of toppings! Love the idea of avocado on a pizza – great addition of fiber!
I live alone, but I do make pizza for myself about once a month or once every couple of weeks. I love adding capers to my pizza, something I first came across while living in Germany. My tradition is that I do always use the same sauce, from a simple recipe given to my family by some Italian friends many years ago. Their name was Astolfi, so we call it (I guess obviously) “Astolfi’s Pizza Sauce.” It’s really great, has no added salt, and makes enough for 2 large pizzas. You can refrigerate any leftover in a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid for up to 2 weeks, or even freeze it.
One 6-ounce can of tomato paste
One 8-ounce can of tomato sauce
1 tsp. dried oregano, crumbled
1/2 tsp. black pepper
Dash or two of Tabasco sauce (to taste)
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. garlic powder (to taste)
Stir ingredients well and heat over medium heat until just starting to bubble around the edges. Do not boil. Spoon onto pizza dough, add your toppings, and bake.
I love goats cheese on pizza, especially with beets. I also like the avocado in this recipe. We don’t have a pizza tradition but I’ve been telling myself I need to make it more often. What a fun tradition you guys have for Thursday nights.
So glad I’m not the only one with pizza guilt. But sometimes ya just gotta have a slice! This is a beautiful pie — makes me want to dig right in!
Homemade pizza is the best! My husband introduced me to goat cheese on pizza years ago and I love the flavor it adds. Another favorite topping of his is a handful of cashews or shelled sunflower seeds for some textural interest.